Imran Adams is set to leave his Hollyoaks role of Mitchell Devereux before the end of this year. Imran joined the soap as the young doctor back in February 2019. The part was his first credited TV role and he appeared in a number of big storylines including coming out as gay, finding out he had a long-lost twin brother and dealing with his gangster father, played by Richard Blackwood.
Discover our latest podcast
Imran will still be appearing on our screens for a little while yet - as viewers are set to see his character Mitchell wed Scott Drinkwell when the show returns from its coronavirus break this September but Channel 4 have confirmed to multiple news outlets that ‘Imran Adams will be leaving Hollyoaks later this year at the end of his current contract.’
Imran himself is yet to make any public comment on his leaving the show but he is said to be ‘happy to move on to new projects’. Whilst there is no suggestion that his exit is linked to the racism investigation that was sparked earlier this summer, he is the second black actor to leave the show since former co-star Rachel Adedeji spoke out about racism behind the scenes.
Rachel’s decision to leave had been made in advance of her comments in June when she spoke out about Hollyoaks’ 'disingenuous' response to the Black Lives Matter movement and shared her own personal experiences of racism on set from members of the crew and production team.
She called the soap out for doing ‘very little’ behind the scenes and detailed some shocking instances of racism she had experienced on the show. These included being told ‘You’re all the same’ by a make-up artist, being called racist names by senior production members, and other black cast members being ‘deemed angry, aggressive and too vocal’.
Following Rachel's statement, Lime Pictures, the production company behind the Channel 4 soap, pledged to do more. They said in a statement: 'We are very conscious that we need to do more and are committed to making changes that we need to make. The onus is upon our company collectively and us all as individuals within our community to tackle racism, and it is a responsibility which all of us here at Hollyoaks are taking on fully.'
